College basketball’s Monday exhibition slate is short, but it still packs in a few useful looks before the 2026-27 season gets rolling.
The day’s action includes three men’s games: Marquette at Green Bay, UAB at Vanderbilt and Saint Leo at South Florida. None of them count in the standings, but each one gives coaches a chance to sort through rotations, test lineups and see where the rough edges still are.
The best-known matchup on the board is Marquette’s trip to Green Bay, a 7:30 p.m. ET tip at the Resch Center.
It’s an in-state meeting, which gives the exhibition a little extra juice even though the programs come from different conferences. Green Bay already got one home tune-up against Wisconsin on October 15, and now it gets another chance to measure itself against a major-conference team before the regular season begins.
For Marquette, the trip is part of a bigger preseason picture. The Golden Eagles are again under Shaka Smart, whose teams are built around defensive pressure, player growth and a shared approach on the floor.
Exhibitions are where that stuff gets stress-tested. Marquette has another preseason date coming soon, too, with Michigan State scheduled to visit Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on October 25.
That game will be available on YouTube, according to the school’s official schedule. Monday’s matchup is listed with radio coverage on 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee, and no video streaming has been confirmed.
Vanderbilt gets one of the night’s other Division I matchups when it hosts UAB at 7 p.m. ET at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville.
The Commodores enter with real momentum after going 27-9 in 2025-26, finishing 11-7 in SEC play and earning an NCAA Tournament berth before a narrow postseason loss to Nebraska. Tyler Tanner is the headliner among the returners after posting 19.5 points, 5.1 assists and 2.4 steals per game last season.
He also landed preseason first-team All-SEC honors.
At the same time, Vanderbilt is carrying a young group into the new season. The roster includes seven freshmen and four sophomores, so this exhibition offers an early chance to see how the mix of experience and youth comes together.
UAB should provide a real test as well. Andy Kennedy’s team is coming off its sixth straight 20-win season, and the Blazers have a heavily reshaped roster with 11 additions - six Division I transfers, three junior college transfers and two freshmen.
Kennedy will also get another look at his group on October 27 at Ole Miss. Monday’s game won’t be on ESPN+, and Vanderbilt says fans must attend in person.
South Florida rounds out the schedule with a home exhibition against Saint Leo at the Yuengling Center in Tampa. That one tips at 7 p.m.
ET, with audio available through Bulls Unlimited. Saint Leo is a Division II opponent, giving South Florida the kind of preseason setting that lets a staff work through combinations and hand out minutes without the pressure of a regular-season result.
The Bulls have the comfort of home for this one, and they’ll use it as another step toward opening the season November 2 against Charleston Southern, followed by a trip to DePaul on November 5.
With all three games starting within a 30-minute window, fans have a few ways to spend the evening. Marquette at Green Bay stands out because of the Wisconsin angle.
Vanderbilt against UAB gives you a Division I matchup with some real roster intrigue. South Florida’s exhibition against Saint Leo is another chance for a coaching staff to learn more about its team in game conditions.
It’s a small slate, but for this stage of the calendar, that’s the point.
In Other News...
Clark Lea Sees A Bigger Vanderbilt Problem Than Jared Curtis
Jared Curtis outing against Arkansas showed both sides of what Vanderbilt is asking from its freshman quarterback. He finished 19 of 31 for 274 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, a line that naturally invites the usual rookie scrutiny, but Clark Lea said the more encouraging part has been Curtis growth behind the scenes. The coach pointed to steady progress in how the young quarterback is handling the offense, setting protections and adjusting through practice and walkthroughs.
Still, Lea made clear the bigger issue is not just Curtis learning on the job. Vanderbilt is not giving him nearly enough help from the rest of the operation, whether that is the run game, pass protection, the defense or special teams. For a freshman still finding his footing, that lack of support can turn ordinary mistakes into much larger problems, and it leaves the Commodores with a team-wide issue to fix rather than a single quarterback to blame. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Defense Has A Growing Problem Clark Lea Must Solve
Vanderbilts defense came out of the Arkansas loss with more questions than answers, and the numbers only sharpened the concern. The unit gave up 438 total yards and multiple red zone touchdowns, a performance that fit a season-long trend of struggling in several national defensive categories. Clark Leas scheme is built around pressure, but when the execution slips, the whole structure can start to look shaky.
Lea has pointed to confusion and disorganization as the bigger issue, with the problems showing up in how the defense lines up and operates before the snap. For a staff trying to steady the group, the challenge now is less about designing pressure and more about getting the details clean enough to let it work. There are adjustments coming, but the question hanging over the Commodores is how far those fixes will need to go. [Read more 🡒]
Clark Lea Just Put Vanderbilts Biggest Problem On Blast
Clark Lea didnt hide from the mess up front when he spoke about Vanderbilts offense, and his comments landed as a pretty direct challenge to a unit that was supposed to bring more stability this season. The Commodores have several returning offensive linemen, but Lea said the group has not played to expectations, putting the focus squarely on a part of the roster that was expected to help steady a young offense. With freshman quarterback Jared Curtis trying to find his footing, the lines ability to hold up has become one of the clearest pressure points on the team.
Lea made it plain that the line has to improve if Vanderbilt is going to protect its quarterback and avoid making life harder than it already is. He expressed confidence that the group will get better, but stopped short of explaining exactly how that turnaround will happen, leaving the Commodores with a familiar kind of midseason question: whether the pieces they believed would anchor the offense can start looking the part before the problems along the line become a bigger issue. [Read more 🡒]